disk utility and re-formatting a window HD

Hi all,
I am a new convert, and I have two external HD that I would like to re-format using disk utility and formatting in the MS_DOS mode.

My problem:
When I connect the external drive to the mac a screen pops up and tell me the drive is unrecognizable and ask me if I wait to initialize it. I do that and the drive shows up in the disk utility screen. I select the drive, select the ms-dos format select the title and hit erase. Then an are you sure screen pops up and I hit erase again.

Then nothing happens: about 2 minutes go by and a spinning pinwheel looking think pops up and sits there. Two hours later the same thing, a progress bar never shows up and the drive is doing nothing.

you're trying to do with while os x is running? or this is a completely blank drive(im tired so i might not be thinking clearly at all )
have you tried the partician tool? it should take it back to "untitled" and not "macintosh hd" It should work but like I said return it to a single partition.

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